When you launch a course or any educational content, it’s both extremely exciting and tiring at the same time! I always picture a large rocket ship taking off and hurling itself into space, and it honestly can feel like that sometimes when you’re launching. Beyond the seemingly never-ending to-do list of tasks to get ready for a launch, there’s a lot of emotional vulnerability that comes with putting yourself and your offering out into the world.
Last week, I wrapped up the first 2021 enrollment period for my signature course Brand Clarity Academy (if you missed out on this round, join the waitlist here). As my most successful launch ever bringing in over 45K, I wanted to share this blog post and get really open with you all about this win. It still feels weird to share this number, but this is business and I think it can be helpful to talk about real numbers. My launch numbers will probably be really small to some and really big for others. But, I know that my feelings around it are far less important than inspiring someone else and uplifting them by showing what’s possible. So let’s get into it!
I’m a big fan of working smarter and not harder, and I’m sure I’m not alone in this! I have launched BCA once before in July so I repurposed a lot of my emails from my first launch. We tried new subject lines and preview text for some emails and kept the same subject lines for high-performing emails to compare and contrast.
I also repurposed some past Instagram content by going through my Instagram content and taking inventory of what posts performed the best. After archiving them, I recreated their graphics and mostly repurposed the captions with some tweaks here and there. I highly recommend this for folks who might get posting paralysis, a common condition for creative entrepreneurs with too much on their plates. For me, this was very helpful to know I had my content already made up.
I was getting a fair amount of DMs and emails asking me when I was going to be opening up BCA next so I was starting to get eager to open the doors. The only thing holding me back was that I hadn’t reached my email list goal. So I did an email-based giveaway to grow my list of specifically designers, and hopefully, designers that were interested in joining BCA. This helped me add 641 new subscribers to my list. I spent a total of $350 on the giveaway for the prizes and software, which is about .50 per lead (way cheaper than ads!)
The last launch I did was the first time I had ever done a webinar. In the last webinar, I did for the launch 350 people signed up and the webinar converted at 7.71% That’s not bad at all! For this launch I had over 600 people sign up (and I was getting so nervous. Imagine standing in a room presenting to 600 people). Only 150ish people showed up live. Which isn’t too much lower than the average webinar turnout rate of 30%. And luckily the chat was very active and I got some of the best questions yet! I also increased the conversion rate of the webinar from 7.71% to 9% which felt like a huge win. Hosting a webinar is one of my favorite ways to build hype around a launch. If you want to snag my exact webinar funnel you can purchase it here.
I have a special passion for sales pages, especially beautifully-designed long-form ones. They are so much fun for me to create, and when done correctly they convert really well. I always use a long-form sales page when launching Brand Clarity Academy. It may seem like overkill but someone on the fence really will read every single word on the page.
This was my first time introducing affiliates and I had 15 course sales come from affiliates which I’m happy with! I’m so honored that students want to talk about BCA and spread the word. Additionally, I want to support those that have gone through the course and overall talk more about BCA on my platforms beyond launching. Because of the success of the affiliates this round, I hope to have more resources made for everyone that would like to be an affiliate so I can help them be successful and make it even easier for them when the next launch comes around.
I have experimented a little bit with FB ads in the past but most were a total flop. But I wanted to give them another go for this launch. I mostly set up retargeting ads to get in front of a warm audience after they had either signed up for the webinar or visited the sales page. I also set up ads to drive signups to the webinar. Some of these were for a warm audience and some for a look-a-like audience. Let’s just say there is a lot of room for improvement for me to set up ads targetting new audiences.
Overall I’m happy with the outcome of the ads. I only spent $803 on ads and those ads brought in $7,713, which is definitely not a bad ROI and feels worth it to me!
I collected video testimonials from past BCA students and used them on the sales page, email marketing, and social media. I’m seriously so honored when others want to talk about BCA too, so if you are a past BCA student reading this you are also welcome to share your experience and know that I really want to showcase what you’ve accomplished as a result. When I’m having a conversation with someone that’s on the fence about joining instead of saying “take my word for it”, I love directing the conversation to someone else that’s been in the same position as them. I think that’s so much more powerful to potential buyers.
Launching means being really visible and knowing that others are talking about you right now… which well.. makes me really uncomfortable. Launching is exciting, but it’s also draining and makes all of those icky and biggest insecurities come out. I didn’t cry, but man the emotions were high!
No launch will ever be perfect. There are so many tiny little things to think about, a myriad of different tech pieces to be connected, something is bound to go wrong. There were only very minor hiccups, which were just a few tiny tech things that I didn’t even think about. Luckily they weren’t a huge issue, but it’s a good reminder that you can never have too many systems and tech check-ups.
During a previous launch, I did all the things. I was doing IG lives every day leading up to the webinar, I sent personalized video messages, I voice messaged everyone that attended the webinar… and it left me exhausted. So after the last launch, I audited what didn’t make the most impact and decided to get rid of it for this launch. This launch felt very easy, but I think I just got kind of lazy and didn’t show up with as much energy as I could have.
Talking about real numbers can be hard but this is business. Often we see a big fancy launch number and think that person immediately took home that much. This isn’t really true and can make others feel small about their own launches.
This launch brought $45,059 in total revenue. I had about $3,300 in expenses. After a launch, I treat myself to something small (I got myself a pair of jeans I’ve been eyeing and some new skincare products) but for the most part, the money gets reinvested back in the business and to support my team.
Whether you’ve launched a course multiple times or if you’re dreaming up an idea for an offering and hope to launch sometime this year, I hope you found this post inspirational and educational. Especially as women business owners, it’s pertinent that we share our numbers with one another and collaborate on ideas so that we all collectively rise.